McDonald's fined for polluting British waterway

Reuters; 24 July 1997

LONDON (Reuter) - Britain's Environment Agency said Thursday
that the McDonald's fast-food chain had been hit with fines and
legal costs totalling $13,850 for polluting an English waterway.

It said that McDonald's Restaurants Ltd., a British subsidiary of
McDonald's Corp., had pleaded guilty to polluting a tributary of
the Alconbury Brook with sewage effluent from one of its outlets in
Cambridgeshire, north of London.

The burger chain broke the law twice last August and once in April
by discharging sewage through fields, resulting in sheep receiving
drinking water that was unfit for livestock, the agency said.

It said an agency inspector found that the treatment plant at the
chain's Alconbury branch appeared not to work, allowing fungus
to grow and the smell of old sewage to spread.

A second visit revealed continued problems and the company gave
assurances that the matter would be fixed, said the agency, an
independent government body. A third visit, carried out eight
months later, showed the plant was still not operating properly.

"Any company must take responsibility and ensure that the
management of its waste is given as much attention as any other
aspect of its business, and that it operates so that no harm comes
to the environment," Paul Waldron, the agency's area water quality
manager, said in a statement.

Robert Parker, consumer affairs manager at McDonald's British
subsidiary, told Reuters the company regretted the lapse brought
to light by the court ruling, delivered Wednesday.

"We take our environmental responsibility very seriously and
immediately we were aware of this situation we took significant
steps to resolve it," he said.